The Torture of Waiting
by Lizard Pie
Summary: Trapped inside a city, hoping for salvation she knew wouldn't come and listening to the rest of the world fall, she wrote a diary entry to keep her sanity.  NPCcentric AU


AN: A kiribian from DeviantArt. An invasion of Gaia taken on more serious terms than they normally are.

* * *

To tell the truth, the reason we weren't prepared was not that we didn't know. The radios played news of the war 'round the clock; which we'd hear about when we bothered to turn off our sports or music. 

Mostly, we'd hear between waiting for train or weather reports on the talk stations.

At least, that was the way it was with the majority of people I spoke with. The older, more responsible ones probably listened all the time.

Not that they were any more prepared than the rest of us. Their attempts at resistance… it's best not to mention how badly they were massacred.

The whole thing… it was horrible, but it didn't seem real. Like some sci-fi movie that happened in a place which was meant to be exactly like your home town, but wasn't. The monsters would come, people would scream and run and die. Feeling a little stupid, you would lock your doors and keep a light on that night.

You knew there was no monster outside, it was all just pretend.

I don't know what convinced us that we were so special. It was spreading everywhere else; of course it was going to come here, too.

Whatever it was… we weren't prepared because of it.

And then, it was one of those events in history where you're supposed to always remember exactly where you were when you heard. It's easier for some of us than others.

I was working in my shop. I was listening to baseball as always. And then it was interrupted.

Isle de Gambino was under attack. People were running, but they were being pursued. Skeletal troops… unfeeling, unthinking, just killing.

They were being led by some raving madman, and were making their way down to Barton. All residents were advised to stay in their homes, and try to find something to fend the horde off with.

Just the way the reporter was speaking… you could tell she didn't really believe that it would work.

Maybe two hours after that, the girl from Gambino Liam used to date showed up in town. She was screaming and crying, and ended up dragging him off.

Her plan, apparently, was that they were going to warn the people in Durem so that they could protect themselves.

The last thing I heard from him before he was dragged off was "Don't they know?"

There are a lot of people who have led resistance movements in the past in Durem. I figure that they have just as much chance of being safe there as they would here. Maybe they've found a safe house, and have joined in the fight against the invaders.

The problem is that we needed him here. He's a quick mechanic –with some of the best robotics training in town. He would have been such an asset. I don't know if they'll figure out how he can be utilized before someone punches him out for hitting on the wrong girl.

But then, I don't even know if they'll make it. That girl was sobbing and hysterical, but most of all loud, when they left. She might give away their position. The best I'm hoping for is to find out when they died.

Most of us were too busy to venture out of Aekea very often, as he did. The vast majority of us had no reason to leave. So, the vast majority is still inside the walls.

Being isolated helps a lot, actually. Because they didn't spend much time outside, we still have a good amount of our engineers on the other side of town working to create something to combat this.

Maybe the government shouldn't have passed so many laws to ban war Bots. The people who created them wouldn't have all died already. This might be a lot easier.

Or, at least, it wouldn't be these fumbling attempts.

I'm sure that someone else, besides the few people I won't give away, collected old schematics on the black-market. Someone should know something better than what they do.

Of course, that would lead to the question of why none of us, especially including myself, have come forward to give our ideas.

I guess we're all in the same boat. We don't want to admit what we've been doing all these years during the ban. None of us want to be publicly humiliated, publicly executed.

I guess that goes even now when we're all about to die anyway.

Those of us who are considered too immature or inexperienced aren't allowed to help with the construction. So, basically we spend our days sitting in our homes –listening to the radio for any change.

Barton has fallen completely at this point.

Troop efforts are mostly unsuccessful.

They were making their way toward Durem –resistance efforts were holding them off for now.

There's no mention, perhaps purposefully, of Aekea.

Maybe they're banking on the hope that these people wouldn't realize there was a city to the east which had enough technical resources to pose some sort of threat. Maybe they're trying to buy us time.

It's been a few days now, and still they aren't here. I guess it's working.

I just hope they're moving quickly enough; right now the entire city is trapped, and we'll never get out unless they can fight back.

When you really think about it… Maybe that's their whole plan. That's what they used to do in the past, wasn't it? Barricade a population in a city, and then let time do the rest.

Eventually, we're going to run out of food. Eventually disease is going to start spreading through Aekea and we're all going to die.

When we're too weak to do anything but surrender, then they're going to move in.

Or maybe they really don't know we're here, and we're all panicking for something that's not going to happen.

It could be either way, really. But, from what I hear, this commander is not really one for subtle plans. He's more the type to destroy everything, and then work out the details later. If he was going to attack, it was just going to be an assault.

But it's been so long, how he couldn't have realized that there's a town over here…

Maybe he just doesn't care; and he'll let us try our futile rebellious efforts. Then, when he smashes us down, at least we'll be content with the fact that we'd fought. Maybe we'll go more quietly that way.

But I don't even know anymore.

The person who would… that'd probably be Josie. Being the head of the housing commission, she was always speaking with these important rich people… She had more gossip in her than anyone I'd ever met before.

Not that she would have spoken to this man, but she'd probably spoken to all of those who would have while she was working on their homes.

She was out with some client, mapping out a home upgrade, when this all happened. The city was locked down before she could make it back in.

I like to think that she went around to all of these terrified citizens –hiding in the homes she'd given them. They all knew her, they all trusted her, and so they followed as she led them to safety.

Someplace, Josie and all of those residents are just sitting, waiting this whole thing out. When it's over, I like to think that she'll come down from the mountains like the Pied Piper; all of the little people following behind her, dancing and singing.

But then, I also like to think that Liam is right now running back to Aekea with his arms full of blueprints for a war Bot. I like to think that the Durem resistance movement is really holding back those forces. I like to think that there are still people, at least a few, left alive on the smoldering heap which was once Isle de Gambino.

I know it's probably not happening, and it might not ever happen.

The only thing that I wish that I truly think is possible anymore is that, at some point, I'm going to see customers come back. More than those who were caught in the city when this whole thing started, of course.

It will mean that people are traveling again, so things are getting back in order. They'll bring news with them, and I'll get to find out what happened to all of those people I considered myself so close to. I want to find out how many of those trapped outside of our city are still around.

It's really tearing me up that I don't know.

Not that, you know, they're probably much better off than we are now. Food supplies are dwindling because Aekea was never meant to support so many people for so long on its own. It always needed shipments to support its many workers. It was almost completely ruled out handling all the visitors, as well.

Medicine, too, is low.

No one will really tell how much longer we have.

The only thing going for us is that we're a city of engineers and mechanics. All of our systems are running correctly, so sanitation is not a problem. That's what used to destroy civilizations trapped like this in the past –the lack of sewers would let disease spread even faster.

We're clean, so we've side-stepped that little disaster. But this will only take us so far.

What's going to kill everyone is hunger and disease; and, of course, the insanity and greedy instinct to stay alive that those cause.

That Bot is getting larger by the day.

I wandered by there again a day or so ago and offered my services. An extra body and another trained mind couldn't hurt in the construction process.

They told me to go back to my shop as if I were a child. The grown-ups were busy.

They told me to go back and do exactly as I had been –sit by my silent phone and my dying radio for any sort of news from the outside.

I bet the lines have been cut.

The radio is starting to get fuzzy… it maybe only has an hour or so left.

And then we'll be alone again.

I've heard it said that, in these sorts of situations, being optimistic can make them so much easier. And I try so hard to think that this is all going to end, and before I know it things will be back to normal again. I'll be pulling a profit and watching people race by with my work.

But I just don't know anymore.

I can feel the troops just outside of the city walls –slowly closing ranks around us.

Sniffing, listening.

They don't know who we are or what we could be capable of, but they know someone's here. And when they've finally figured it out, we'll hear the clatter of bones as they swarm the city.

It's not so much the knowledge of what could, and probably will, happen that's so bad. It's the waiting for it that's killing me.

I just wish that, whatever everyone's planning to do, they would all just hurry up with it.


End file.
